Today, Azerbaijan
Aug. 11, 2006
Novruz Mammadov: "We have never heard anything about Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity from OSCE MG"
11 August 2006 [23:26] – Today.Az
A senior aide to President Ilham Aliyev has warned that Azerbaijan
could turn to the United Nations if French, Russian and American
mediators continue to ignore its internationally recognized
sovereignty over Nagorno Karabakh.
In televised remarks cited by the BBC on Friday, Novruz Mammadov,
head of the foreign relations department of the Azerbaijani
presidential administration, again indicated Baku’s unhappiness with
a peaceful settlement favored by the three co-chairs of the Minsk
Group, RFE/RL informs.
"Unfortunately, we have never heard anything about Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity from them," Mammadov was quoted as telling an
Azerbaijani TV channel. "Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity should
have been the mediators’ main principle… but they are forgetting
about that. Just like the whole world, the mediators are thinking
only about their own countries’ interests."
Another top Azerbaijani official, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov,
claimed for his part that the mediators are increasingly indifferent
to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis that were
displaced during the 1991-1994 war for Karabakh. He complained that
they no longer visit rundown refugee camps where a large part of them
continue to reside. "This posture by the co-chairs must be regarded
as pressure on the leadership of Azerbaijan," Hasanov said, according
to the Interfax news agency.
Mammadov accused the mediators of being biased against the
Azerbaijanis. "They are thinking about the 100,000 ethnic Armenians
of Karabakh, but what about the 50,000 Azerbaijanis of Karabakh?" he
said.
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